The rise of cryptocurrency and the popularity of so-called “meme coins” has led to the sad reality that anyone who hates all of that shit can open Twitter and feel like they stepped into an episode of “Interdimensional Cable.”
In the Season Two Rick and Morty episode “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate,” the writers introduced what has become one part of the fandom’s favorite prop gag in the history of the show by playing a How It’s Made-style short about a fictional yet ubiquitous household device that does… something. According to the narrator of the scene, “Everyone has a Plumbus in their home,” but the show intentionally avoids explaining the actual purpose of the Plumbus, only urging viewers that everyone needs one.
Honestly, it’s a perfect allegory for how scammers sell their crypto coins.
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Presumably, the creators of the $PLUMBUS coin appreciated that irony as the digital currency hit a $3.4 million market cap today with over 30,000 trades in the last 24 hours, causing #PLUMBUS to trend on Twitter and infuriating the part of the Rick and Morty fandom who would rather buy Jerry’s R2-D2 coins than blow their money on a crypto scam.
“$PLUMBUS is a meme coin built on Solana for true Rick and Morty degenerates, but also for everyone, because everyone should own a Plumbus,” the official description of the coin reads on the $PLUMBUS website. “Liquidity burned, community ignited, and the multiverse isn’t ready.”
Naturally, $PLUMBUS doesn’t presume to do anything besides attract Rick and Morty fans with its referential name and its gallery full of what I’m assuming is A.I.-generated Rick and Morty artwork. Like all cryptocurrencies, $PLUMBUS is just one big exercise in the Greater Fool Theory, and its explosion in valuation over the last 24 hours has a good chance of being followed by a price plummet, especially after the early adopters dump their stakes.
Unfortunately, I do have to give credit to the creator of $PLUMBUS, because the Rick and Morty fandom is absolutely the right group of rubes to target with such technological scammery. The actual owners of the Rick and Morty IP recently partnered with the popular collectibles company Funko to produce a line of official Rick and Morty NFTs, and the crypto space is flooded with gullible fans of the show, given the substantial overlap between guys who think that watching Rick and Morty makes them geniuses and people who let Elon Musk convince them to put their life savings into Dogecoin.
For as soulless and pathetic as the entire meme coin market may be, $PLUMBUS understands its customers better than most actual businesses, and the results speak for themselves. Hell, if Musk ever hears about this, some $PLUMBUS just might end up in the United States Treasury.